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Grade 6 Geography — Reading a map

Find the four things nearly every map carries — its title, its direction arrow, its key and its scale — and use the key to say what a symbol or a color on the map stands for.

Name: ________________________

  1. 1.A physical map shows the natural land — where the mountains, plains and rivers are. A political map shows what people have drawn on it — borders, regions and cities. Which map would show each of these?

    Groups: A physical map · A political map

    • Where the mountains rise
    • Where the plains lie
    • The administrative center of each region
    • The border between two regions
    • The name of every region
    • The course of a river

  2. 2.Which of a map's four helpers do you need if you want to know how far apart two places really are?

  3. 3.This map's key gives blue for water, green for low flat land, and brown for high land. Sort each thing on the map by the color it would be drawn in.

    Groups: Blue · Green · Brown

    • Flat farmland beside a village
    • A mountain range
    • A river
    • The sea
    • A high snow-covered peak
    • A lake
    • A plain

  4. 4.Why does a map use small marks instead of drawing everything as it really looks?

    • a) Because a map is always drawn by a machine
    • b) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
    • c) Because most people cannot recognize a drawing of a building
    • d) Drawing things properly is against the rules of map making

  5. 5.A map has no direction arrow drawn on it anywhere. What can you no longer be sure of?

    • a) What each of its marks stands for
    • b) Which way up the map is meant to be read
    • c) How far apart the places on it are
    • d) Which place it is a map of

  6. 6.A drawing of one single room, with every table and cupboard in it, is drawn far bigger than any map would draw the same room. What is that drawing called?

    • a) A plan
    • b) A symbol
    • c) A globe
    • d) A key

  7. 7.What is a map?

    • a) A list of the places in a country
    • b) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
    • c) A photograph taken from the side of a hill
    • d) A model of the whole earth, round like the earth itself

  8. 8.Which part of a map lists what each mark and color on it stands for?

Answer key — Grade 6 Geography — Reading a map

  1. 1. Where the mountains rise → A physical map; The border between two regions → A political map; Where the plains lie → A physical map; The administrative center of each region → A political map; The course of a river → A physical map; The name of every region → A political map
  2. 2.
    • the scale
    • scale
  3. 3. A river → Blue; A plain → Green; A mountain range → Brown; A lake → Blue; Flat farmland beside a village → Green; The sea → Blue; A high snow-covered peak → Brown
  4. 4. b) There is nothing like enough room on the paper to draw every real thing
  5. 5. b) Which way up the map is meant to be read
  6. 6. a) A plan
  7. 7. b) A drawing of a place as it would look from above
  8. 8.
    • the key
    • key
    • the legend
    • legend